Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

[Flojomojo]

I don't even think we need the benefit of hindsight. They've always sounded like they're out of touch with reality.

 

Worrying about whether my run-n-jump video game will last another 50 years is like worrying about a horse-drawn carriage that is warm enough to not require the use of gloves or overcoats, in 2016. Who asked for that?

 

[MagnaRyuu]

That GamerArchive bull. I give them credit for the fact they seem to have taken the time to 3D print a bunch of those "books". LOL

[Newsdee]

The podcast really shows contradictions.

 

You feel like they are trying to cater for everybody but in the end admit it's up to gamers to buy their console to establish userbase.

 

They say they don't want to compete with PS4 and Xbox but then state they want to run any "AAA 16-bit like games" (read: 2d pixel art games not bound by old hardware constraints) so they need specs in par to a modern console.

 

They say they want to give everybody a free development environment but somehow it would be protected against piracy. Yeah right.

 

To developers they offer nothing that Steam or PSN and such (userbase) doesn't offer, minus online updates which drive up the costs of development.

 

To gamers there is nothing some homebrew cart publisher doesn't already offer for retro consoles. If you're worried about the games going away because your carts break, don't worry some pirates will have dumped the game in the span of 10 years.

 

Give us gamers the legal means to buy ROMs and let us run it with whatever hardware we want (the Neogeo humble bundle has the unnencrypted roms, for instance)

[phoenixdownita]

....

Give us gamers the legal means to buy ROMs and let us run it with whatever hardware we want (the Neogeo humble bundle has the unnencrypted roms, for instance)

^^^^ This 100% ^^^^

 

Only caveat that applies to a minor number of games is that some use licenses from other products (Outrun for Sega with depiction of Ferrari products, Xenon 2 with Megablast music etc...) and those are normally not renewed but in general the IPs are pretty self contained and as such there should be little in the way.

[Pipercub]

“Ed [Gueiss] thought it was not a great idea”.- 4:00

“Indiegogo has been courting us”, lots of insinuation that IGG was just so much cooler than kickstarter- 6:30

Oh, BTW, we don’t have a prototype and that’s a problem with Kickstarter – 7:27

“We use Indiegogo because they’re LOCAL” – 10:00

“We’re going to fabricate the boards in the US.” - 10:30

“We’re dealing with serious specification. This thing has to last a lifetime.” - 13:17

“As much technical detail as you like…” - 18:26

“Can’t go into too much detail, we have a lot of patentable technology” - 19:53

Mike is in love with the sound of his own voice and won’t stop talking about Legos despite everyone else being bored - 25:00

“Absolutely no bugs!” - 27:08

“Our minimal goals will give us a very capable system” 28:10 - (Note, they just spent several minutes hyping FPGA, and the original goal of the IGG did NOT allow for the FPGA tech)

“THE ARCHITECTURE IS VERY WELL DEFINED” - 35:30

“Stuff is being developed right now.” – 36:20

 

That is why I posted this, it is so telling. I knew quite allot about the business dirty dealings when this interview as done, and as I said we had a checklist of things that we wanted to get Socal on record admitting to but we didn't have to since Steve nailed the main points. What we didn't know was how completely effed up the program was at that moment, we knew they had a chaotic situation but we had WTF moments that shocked us. The big one was when we asked about the supplier for a specific component and got the "we are not ready to reveal our supplier relationships" line. When that came out I muted my mic to yell "holy *% they have nothing!"

 

First of all, at those minuscule volumes of components the website of usual suppliers covers volume discounts well above the largest proposed RVGS shipment volume. There are no relationships at that volume level.

 

And, there are a finite number of suppliers of these components. If I say I am purchasing parts for my muscle car and you say, who Jegs, Summit racing? and I answer with I am not ready to reveal my vendors, you know I am doing nothing because those are the sources. Your not giving away secrets by naming the vendors, by concealing it you are revealing you have nothing planned.

[Newsdee]

I was also thinking that using US vendors would ramp up the price. There is probably a market for "certified organic hardware" but bundling that with other challenges that also drive cost up isn't a good idea. Especially if you have to beg for money to get a prorotype off the ground.

[Newsdee]

I thought I'd give a try at cleaning the end of the transcript.

I'm not confident I've got all the lines attributed right though, so let me know and I'll edit.

 

Starts from around 1:23 to around 1:29

 

UKM:

Is there anything else that you want to put out there before we wrap this up?

 

SC:

I hope this goes through because there are a lot of games that I want to make for this system.

 

UKM[?]:

Not making Quadrant again are you?

 

SC:

Ive been asked to... (laughs) but Ive been asked to start up Kid Chameleon 2 on this thing. Of course that's hard to get roped in together and get Sega on board. But you never know.

 

MK:

You never know. At least with RetroVGS there are possibilities for lots of these things to happen, there's possibilities for lots of expansion. I mean obviously we don't know five years down the road what we are going to put into this thing, but again, part of John's task and Steve's task was building a system that was somewhat expandable, without having to buy a completely brand new machine.

 

SC:

This is super flexible...

 

MK:

- that's really the point - [?]

 

SC:

...so we're not really harnessed to some little pinhole of development, its very, very, wide open for development.

Well thanks a lot you guys, it was tremendous.

 

UKM: You're welcome, and I hope it all works out for you, and that the Indiegogo campaign is successful.

 

SC:

Oh thanks, we hope so too.

 

UKM:

And then we'll take it apart and see what you were talking about. Scott will open one for us.

 

MK:

 

I'll tell you what: here is the other thing guys, I mean before we end. We want to put our backers on the front lines. You know we've been very transparent up to this point for better or for worse. I mean it's gotten us into some trouble, but you know at the same time its been fantastic. I mean we've learned a lot by keeping this thing as open as we can. And its really been tremendous.

 

You know we've had a lot of critical talk about it, we've had tons of fans talk about it, and learning from everybody has been a great experience. And that's something that we want to continue to do, somewhat through the development of this this. Its kind of keeping someone on the front lines so they can see what this process is.

 

We've got to remind everybody, were not just starting a campaign just to buy a product, this campaign is bringing a company to life, that again we hope to be there from five, ten, or fifteen years from now bringing tons of entertainment year after year after year. With these developers, who over time get used to this system. When they get used to it they start to do fantastic things; were not going to change the game plan at the last minute, making them start all over. Its got a long, long runway, and like Steve said there are lots of opportunities for developers to exploit what were giving them over the course of time.

 

Of course we're going in a completely different direction then the industry's going. I mean, the next systems that come out are going to separate gamers even further from their games, and at least for those of us who enjoy the retro games we've got another option.

 

UKM:

Yep Excellent. All right guys.

 

Team:

All right, thank you very much.

Edited August 13, 2016 by Newsdee

[godslabrat]

Yeah, that "we've been transparent" line is pure gold.

[toiletunes]

he was transparent: We saw through him.

[godslabrat]

I love how he's saying they've been transparent, at the exact same stage when the answer to every question asked on his FB was "You'll see!" And "Just wait!"

[Newsdee]

we're not just starting a campaign just to buy a product, this campaign is bringing a company to life

So the Indiegogo was to start a company, which will then build a prototype for a product that will be released once and never be updated.

All in the name of gamers and developers who are being brought apart by the latest consoles.

 

This is what happens when you have just an idea. You need other people to implement it, and if you can't pay them they are not going to work for free.

I suspect the reason there was no prototype whatsoever from the RVGS days is that nobody wanted to do work for this company, and (potentially) allow MK to claim ownership of the result.

 

<sarcasm>ah, now that it failed us retro gamers are in dire straits. if only there were DRM-free games on, I don't know, a standard machine architecture that many manufacturers support, so they could be backed up without worrying about decaying storage</sarcasm>

[toiletunes]

I just wish Nintendo had remembered to tell the programmers to make Super Mario Bros bug free.

[jaybird3rd]

I just wish Nintendo had remembered to tell the programmers to make Super Mario Bros bug free.

True, although I still like "instruct" (Mike's original word) better. It has that perfect whiff of condescension and arrogance, whereas "tell" is more like communicating with someone you regard as a peer.

[btbfilms76]

I love how he's saying they've been transparent, at the exact same stage when the answer to every question asked on his FB was "You'll see!" And "Just wait!"

 

But they were totally "transparent", remember that Jag case was clear.... And every question was answered. Well we "waited" and what we "saw" was a DVR card instead of an actual game machine. LOL Can't believe this thread is almost to 400 pages.

[Osgeld]

only a couple more posts come on we can do it

Edited August 13, 2016 by Osgeld

[jaybird3rd]

only a couple more posts come on we can do it

I'm waiting for this thread to reach 10,000 posts. Only 34 more to go now!

[godslabrat]

only a couple more posts come on we can do it

Just wait! You'll see!

[Pipercub]

Is this the real life.

[thevnaguy]

Is this just fantasy?

[Pipercub]

Caught in a landslide.

[thevnaguy]

No escape from reality

[Pipercub]

Open your eyes.

[thevnaguy]

Look up to the skies and see

[Pipercub]

I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy.

[thevnaguy]

Because I'm easy come, easy go